Ramen Salad

When the heat outside it horrid, you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen slaving over a steaming pot or a burning oven. A great dish to have that's not hot are cool pasta salads.
For this, I used ramen noodle. Isn't it great fifty cents a pack and you can create a whole meal out of it and it's not just soup.

I love pasta. I don't know where I would be without it. Along with cheese and maybe butter. Anyway, I had a tomato, cucumber and an avocado that I needed to use up. I didn't have lettuce to make a traditional salad, but then it occurred to me that salads don't necessarily mean a bowl of lettuce or a bunch of greens. So out came some ramen noodles and a cup of small shell pasta. The latter is optional. Chopped up the tomato and cucumber and I mixed them with a simple dijon vinaigrette and topped it off with a nice firm and ripe avocado that I marinated in some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. This was really good. Perfect on a summer's evening. And I didn't slave away in the kitchen either. Really easy clean-up and a fulfilling meal. Yum!

Serves 2-3.





Ramen Salad

1 ramen pack (minus seasoning)
1 large heirloom tomato - diced
1 large cucumber - diced
1 ripe avocardo - diced
lemon juice
grated parmesan

Dijon Vinaigrette
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon mustard

Toss the diced avocado in some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. Set aside.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the ramen for rough 5-8 min. Strain and cool it down with cold water.

In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes and cucumbers. When the ramen in ready, add it into the tomato mixture.

Combine the ingredients of the vinaigrette in a separate bowl. Whisk together until blended. Drizzle over the pasta mixture and gently toss coating everything.

Top with some of the avocado.